Doctor Who Season 9’s Hybrid Explained: All Clues, Fakes & REAL Answer

The Hybrid was the overarching mystery of Doctor Who season 9, but how did this confusing storyline eventually conclude? By the time Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman’s second season in the TARDIS came around, this Doctor and companion duo had developed a keen chemistry. Inevitably, this meant tragedy was just around the corner. Doctor Who season 9 marked the farewell of Clara Oswald, indirectly killed by the Time Lords after accepting a death sentence on behalf of another. The same season saw both Davros and Missy return, albeit much less villainous than before, and the introduction of a major recurring character in Maisie Williams’ Ashildr. For the first time since the Time War, The Doctor also returned to his home planet of Gallifrey.

Almost every season of modern Doctor Who has an ongoing mystery, whether it be Bad Wolf, Saxon, Silence Will Fall or the Timeless Child. Season 9’s was the ominous prophecy of The Hybrid. The word haunted the Twelfth Doctor throughout the season and Steven Moffat crafted a twisting, turning storyline that featured red herrings, misdirection and a highly ambiguous resolution. Following much speculation, the question of the Hybrid was answered in finale episode “Hell Bent” but some viewers felt the reveal was underwhelming, especially compared to those previous storylines mentioned above.

Much of the criticism accused Doctor Who‘s Hybrid arc of being convoluted and overwritten, ending with more of a whimper than a bang. Certainly, this chapter in The Doctor’s life hasn’t enjoyed a lasting impact in more recent seasons. Here are all of the clues and fake-outs, as well as the ultimate answer, to Doctor Who season 9’s Hybrid.

The Hybrid Prophecy & Season 9 Clues

The Gallifreyan prophecy of the Hybrid was introduced in Doctor Who‘s opening season 9 two-parter, in which Davros captured the Twelfth Doctor, forcing Clara to reluctantly team up with Missy in a rescue mission. After spinning a compelling sob story, Davros convinced The Doctor to donate a smidgen of regeneration energy to his long-running enemy, and in his kindness/naivety, The Doctor complied. Naturally, this turned out to be a trap. Davros’ true intention was to imbue the Daleks with Time Lord regeneration energy, fulfilling an ancient prophecy told on Gallifrey.

According to Time Lord lore, a combination of two warrior races would one day arise and herald ruin for all of time and space. This had been foretold as an unavoidable fate by the Time Lord Matrix, the total sum of Gallifrey’s knowledge and experience. As a young child, The Doctor heard this prophecy in person from the Wraiths while exploring the Cloisters, and Davros speculates that fear of The Hybrid might’ve been a factor in The Doctor running away from Gallifrey in the first place. Although the prophecy itself never specified which races would be combined to create this Hybrid, The Doctor, Davros and many others are guilty of assuming the fable referred to the Time Lords and Daleks. After his brush with Davros, The Doctor begins investigating the prophecy for himself. Meanwhile, Rassilon and the Time Lords make similar inquiries from their bubble universe hideaway, and interrogate The Doctor to find out what he knows, unaware that their most famous renegade isn’t any wiser than they on the matter.

Doctor Who’s Fake Hybrids

Even before Doctor Who‘s ninth season, hybrid species had been key to the science fiction series, proffering several pre-existing potential candidates for the prophecy. The “Bad Wolf” Rose Tyler became a timeless hybrid of human and TARDIS energy, while River Song was also a child borne of similar ingredients. In “Daleks in Manhattan,” the pepper pot villains succeeded in creating a mixture of Dalek and human, but deemed him a failure, and the Metacrisis Doctor and Donna Noble both became hybrids after sharing DNA.

However, Doctor Who season 9 introduces a raft of new possible hybrids that could fulfill the omen of the Matrix. In the premiere, Davros tries to create Time Lord Daleks, but his plan backfires when he inadvertently revives his disgruntled abandoned minions underneath the city. The same episode also sees Clara grafted into the shell of a Dalek, hinting towards a potential combination between Davros’ creations and Earthlings. “The Zygon Invasion” is another season 9 two-part adventure featuring a combination of two species combined; a Zygon takes the form of UNIT scientist Osgood, and the pair coexist without ever revealing which was which, hoping to strengthen relations between Zygons and humans.

The Doctor himself is even branded a potential hybrid, with Ashildr suggesting that he could be half-human, given his attachment to Earth above all other planets. This accusation derives from the Eighth Doctor, who did claim to have a human mother in a muddled retcon for Doctor Who‘s 1990s TV movie. However, it was Ashildr herself that represented the most likely Hybrid candidate. Introduced in “The Girl Who Died,” Ashildr was a human resurrected by The Doctor using alien technology from the Mire. The process turned Ashildr into an immortal human/Mire hybrid, and the longer she lived, the more detached she became. By the time The Doctor meets her at the end of the universe, Ashildr simply refers to herself as “Me” since she outlives every other title.

The Hybrid Was “Me”

For much of Doctor Who season 9, The Doctor has no real idea who The Hybrid might be or what the prophecy refers to. After bumping into Me (Ashildr) throughout time, however, he comes to the conclusion that she was the figure of prophecy – a blend of human and Mire. Me’s immortality was destined to leave her standing over the ruins of Gallifrey, while the impending end of time would finally “heal” Me’s heart by ending her long existence, thereby fulfilling each facet of the prophecy. As “Hell Bent” draws to a close, however, The Doctor realizes his mistake – The Hybrid is not Ashildr, it’s the combination of himself and Clara Oswald.

After Clara’s death in “Face The Raven,” The Doctor refused to accept the demise of his closest friend and tried to manipulate the Time Lords into circumventing Clara’s death. Plucking Clara out of time a heartbeat before the raven struck, The Doctor hoped taking the TARDIS to the end of the universe would restart Clara’s heart, but not for the first time in that episode, he was mistaken. The Doctor and Clara realized that their friendship had become dangerous, since The Doctor was willing to break the very laws of time and space to keep her alive. The only solution was for the Twelfth Doctor to remove Clara from his memories and let her die as the flow of history dictated she must. It’s only at this point that The Doctor realizes he and Clara combined are The Hybrid. Both came from warrior races (Time Lords and humans) and they would endanger time itself in order to literally heal the other’s heart.

The Doctor can only speculate that he and Clara are The Hybrid, as no one in the episode provides any real confirmation either way. The ambiguous ending means The Hybrid could technically still be Ashildr or a future enemy that has yet to be seen. However, Doctor Who‘s then-showrunner, Steven Moffat, has confirmed that his intention was for The Doctor/Clara tag team to be the Hybrid of Gallifreyan prophecy.

Was The Hybrid Worth It?

Not really. Unlike previous ongoing Doctor Who storylines, the final reveal of The Hybrid’s identity was underwhelming, and largely irrelevant to the main story. The prophecy itself serves as a plot device to pit the Time Lords and The Doctor against each other, but whether The Hybrid is Ashildr, The Doctor and Clara, or someone else entirely has minimal bearing on how season 9 ends. This is proven by how many viewers remained confused by The Hybrid even after the credits began to roll. Since Doctor Who never conclusively reveals The Doctor and Clara as The Hybrid, there’s an element of doubt over the validity of The Doctor’s final Hybrid theory that Moffat doesn’t clear up on-screen.

Without real consequence, The Hybrid didn’t pack as much punch as previous arcs. Bad Wolf paid off with Rose’s epic transformation, Saxon paid off with the reveal of The Master, and The Silence paid off by revealing the route back to Gallifrey. The Hybrid paid off with something the audience already knew – Clara and The Doctor are willing to do anything for each other – swiftly followed by a frustrating memory wipe trope.

Perhaps The Hybrid would’ve been more effective if Doctor Who season 9 hadn’t dropped so many red herrings along the way. The Time Lord Daleks, Ashildr, Osgood, The Doctor himself; so many potential solutions were introduced that when the final answer did arrive, it couldn’t help but underwhelm, especially when some of those teased possibilities were more exciting than the big reveal itself. The mystery of The Hybrid wasn’t interesting enough to sustain over the course of an entire season, and this meant the storyline never truly caught on as an ongoing mystery, while the constant stream of fake-outs came with diminishing returns.

Doctor Who returns with “Revolution of the Daleks” this Christmas on BBC.

About The Author

Craig Elvy
(3630 Articles Published)

Craig first began contributing to Screen Rant in 2016, several years after graduating college, and has been ranting ever since, mostly to himself in a darkened room. Having previously written for various sports and music outlets, Craig’s interest soon turned to TV and film, where a steady upbringing of science fiction and comic books finally came into its own.
Craig has previously been published on sites such as Den of Geek, and after many coffee-drenched hours hunched over a laptop, part-time evening work eventually turned into a full-time career covering everything from the zombie apocalypse to the Starship Enterprise via the TARDIS.

Since joining the Screen Rant fold, Craig has been involved in breaking news stories and mildly controversial ranking lists, but now works predominantly as a features writer.
Jim Carrey is Craig’s top acting pick and favorite topics include superheroes, anime and the unrecognized genius of the High School Musical trilogy.

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